It was raining outside. The end of the world came in the rain, go figure. I looked at the rain and enjoyed the sound of the glass being pinged by the raindrops. It was music and much more interesting than the drone of the Professor’s voice in his lecture on Calculus. I didn’t listen to him as I knew everything he was talking about. The interesting part was the discussion of what this could be used for. Until then the music of the rain would do.

As I watched the symphonic gloom, a shadow was cast over everything. I looked around at the sudden darkness and wondered what could this be as it wasn’t late enough to be this dark. I looked up. Big mistake. Rolling slow and steady, more and more into view, was the bottom of a metallic-looking thing that floated with the clouds. The rain stopped.

The interesting part of this was that my math Professor still droned on as half the class was now at the windows looking up. I looked at the teacher and said, “Professor Jackson you need to see this.”

“What is it now Mr. Tanner?” He asked as he walked to the window, pulling students away, his face turned white.

“It’s the end of life as we know it, sir,” I answered.

Several students now took out cell phones to make calls or to take pictures. Some even said they were going to Twitter and other social media news sites. I took out my phone and called my mom first. She was at home with my youngest sister. The phone rang for long enough for me to be nervous before she picked up.

“Your father just called from work. Your brother Danny just called from school and I just looked out the window.”

“That thing is big isn’t Mom?”

“What is it, Michael?”

“The end of the world as we know it, Mom. I think they are going to let us out early. I’m going to …” I was interrupted by a voice. A voice in my head, not my voice in my head, someone else’s voice in my head spoke to me.

“ATTENTION PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD. I AM THE HERALD OF YOUR DEATH. I AM THE HOPE OF YOUR LIFE. IN TWO AND A HALF OF YOUR SOLAR CYCLES … YEARS … YOU WILL BE ENSLAVED AND FARMED BY A RACE THAT BRINGS AGONY TO THE MULTIVERSE. TO PREPARE YOU, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO FIGHT FOR YOUR SURVIVAL, I INTRODUCE YOU TO THE STRUCTURES. I WISH TO EACH OF YOU GOOD FORTUNE, GOOD POWER, AND GOOD LUCK.”

“What on earth was that? I think I’m losing my mind. First, a huge metal something floating in the air, then a voice in my …”

The entire room erupted in conversation, but all I could hear was, “Michael you heard that too?”

In the background, I heard the news blaring. These giant metal rocks were all over the world.

“Get out of here, that thing is crashing down on us!”

A quick glance told me that was true, It was slow. How I knew that that thing was coming for us, I don’t know, but my body grew cold and I turned to run out of the room. Within moments I was out of the classroom, down the stairs, and out of the building running full tilt away from the falling rock. Without looking back I ran forward. I ran as fast as I could knowing that I was a dead man. The thing was the size of a city.

Some people were running, others stood and stared at the falling metallic thing. The thing was picking up speed. The next thing I know I am rocketing up towards the metal rock thing that was the size of a large city. I look around me. I am gasping for breath. I am about to crash into this … thing. I scream in fear and frustration just before I hit.

I hurt. Every inch of my body is covered in more pain than I have ever felt before. My screams take on a new edge of fear mixed with agony as well as the realization that I was not alone in expressing my pain. I screamed until I passed out.

Ignorant of how long I was out I opened my eyes to see a mass of bodies at the base of a hill. I looked around to see other hills separated by lush green grass and masses of human bodies that were beginning to stir. I curled into a ball and whimpered. The pain was over but what new thing will I be tested with? Where was I? What was happening to me? How do I get home? To answer these questions, I turned onto my stomach and threw up everything in my belly. I panted as I looked around at people throwing up as I did. It was then that I noticed that they were naked. Looking down I found that we were all naked.

I stood up and many eyes were on me. I saw other men stand. I saw a few women stand. To get a better idea of my surroundings, I began to walk up the hill. It was then that I discovered something very interesting. Interesting and freaky. Each step drained me. I stopped, exhausted after one step. I looked around to see that the others were also exhausted enough to kneel and sit. One guy looked at me, laughed, and took another step. I didn’t know that asshole from Adam but I wouldn’t let him make fun of me like that. I took another step and looked at him.

And so the challenge was accepted. The two of us went back and forth, moving closer to that top, step by step. His nose and ears bled and so he went on. My eyes and ears bled, but I would be second to no one. One thing about me, I wasn’t the smartest, nor was I the strongest, but I never gave up. Even on something as trivial as walking up a hill, naked and bleeding, I wouldn’t give up.

That didn’t stop the tears from falling, though. Nor did it stop the grunts, even cries of pain that came with each step now. I pushed on. Why? Because I wanted to win. I wanted to assert control over this new life. I made the halfway mark and noticed his fall. I took another step and I did it, I beat him, I could rest. No! I always finish what I start. I would rest at the top.

It got harder. Each step produced pain on the level of the agony I experienced before I passed out earlier. I was not the smartest but I could outwork anyone. I pushed my right foot, then my left, and on and on I went with fire scorching every nerve in my body. That’s what it felt like. Still, I trudged on and on.

And then I was at the top of the hill and all the pain stopped. In my mind, I heard,

“CONGRATULATIONS HUMAN. YOU ARE THE FIRST OF YOUR RACE TO CLIMB THE MANA HILL AND YOUR REWARDs ARE MANA POOL AND WILL AND LUCK STATS 10 TIMES WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN.”

“Who are you? Why have you done this? What have you done to me?”

Silence.

What the hell was a will stat and what was a mana pool?

“THINK STATS HUMAN.”

“My name is Michael.”

Silence.

In my mind, I thought, “stats.” In my mind, a game sheet appeared. It looked like it was written on yellow-aged paper.

PHYSICAL

MENTAL

WILL

LUCK

7

8

90

60

SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS

This was odd.

“What is average? If this represents me, what does it mean?” I yelled.

I sat on top of the hill looking as far as I could see of the other hills. As far as I could see I was the only one who made it up to the top of a hill. I didn't know what to do. I just waited. In a while, I decided to go back down and meet the people I'd left, so I stood and glanced around the hilltop. Hidden by a patch of tall grass was a metal ring that I saw just before I started down.

I walked over to it and examined it. It was connected to a trap door. I pulled open the door to find a book and a small brown sack. I took them both. The book was in English, thank God, and contained eight chapters: Sleep, Detect Magic, Mystic Armor, Force Slave, Night Vision, Time Stop, Summon Djinn, Akashic Records.

This item is Soulbound to you. These words flashed in my mind. I looked around to find nothing else, so I began my trip down the hill to the others.